(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a process for making creamy bacteria-free foamable oil-in-water emulsion including chocolate, which has long time stability and high foamability, and which meets the current demand for baking or confectionary products having softness and wetness.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
There are many sorts of chocolate-including food products which comprise chocolate, raw cream, milk, nuts, and sugar, such as Ganache, Gianduya, Pralinen, etc.
Ganache is a mixture of chocolate and cream and/or milk. Generally it is prepared by adding boiled cream or milk to melted chocolate, mixing them well, and leaving the mixture in a cooling room for 24 hours before use. Ganache is mainly used by painting or squeezing. It is possible to control Ganache softness by changing the ratio of chocolate.
Gianduya is a paste which is prepared by kneading a ground mixture of equivalent amount (by weight) of nuts and sugar with chocolate, cocoa, and butter. Gianduya is used for coating on cakes, filling of chocolate cakes, and filling of cakes with butter cream.
Pralinen is a type of sugar.
It is obvious that chocolate has a wide variety of fields of application and an important role as a cake material.
As mentioned above, the softness of Ganache is controlled by the chocolate ratio. It is remarkable that such control is now very popular. Recently there is a demand for confectionary products having softness and wetness. The tendency is the same with Ganache. Therefore, recent Ganache products have become softer and wetter by controlling the aqueous phase to increase the contents of milk.
In view of the situation, the inventors of the present invention studied Ganache and found following problems.
Firstly, while chocolate itself has long stability for including little water and much sugar, Ganache including cream and milk has low stability on account of a high-content of water and dairy products and low-level of sugar. This is because 10.sup.2 -10.sup.3 /g of bacteria exist in chocolate and cacao mass.
Secondly, it is difficult to consistently obtain a Ganache having desired softness by controlling the chocolate ratio.
The third problem is that foamability of cream is lost when chocolate is mixed with boiled cream. Very soft Ganache is sometimes able to be whipped, but this is not for foamability of cream but for airation of mixing. Therefore, Ganache never has a whip cream-milk foamability.
Furthermore, a layer of whipped Ganache is easy to crack in the course of time. In an attempt to avoid the undesirable effect of cracks, particularly in large fancy cakes, it has been common to sprinkle out shaved chocolate over the surface of the cakes in order to prevent a purchaser's reduced desire for a product with cracks.